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Money & Insurance

What Tax Preparation Costs in Berks County

What getting your taxes done costs in Berks County: the flat-fee shops, the chain offices and the CPA firms, what adds to the fee, and the free options.

Berks Connect Blog|Published October 21, 2026
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One Berks flat-fee shop posts a single all-in price for a personal return, $85 as of 2026, with the federal, state and local filings and e-filing included (its about page says $75), and another posts $60 for students with only standard W-2s and $75 to $125 for people 62 and up. At the small independent accounting and tax firms in the national survey, a plain return with the standard deduction, state return included, averaged $248 among Pennsylvania firms in 2020, and most firms raise their fees every year.

What moves the price is what's on the return: itemizing, a side business, a rental or stock sales each add a form and a fee, and if your return is basic, a volunteer site can do it free.

Knowing the numbers now lets you set the money aside before January, or start calling the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County we list at BerksConnect before the season gets going.

What makes a tax return cost more?

Most small firms charge either one fixed fee or a fee for each form, so the simplest way to guess your price is to count the forms. A return where you take the standard deduction instead of listing deductions one by one (itemizing) sets the base price, and itemizing adds a form. A side business or self-employment income, including driving for a delivery app, stays on your personal return as two extra forms, Schedule C for the income and Schedule SE for the self-employment tax.

If the business is new, our guide to starting a business in Berks County has a section on choosing an accountant and the rest of your professional team. A rental adds Schedule E, the form for rental income, and stock or crypto sales add one more form.

A few charges have nothing to do with the forms. About two thirds of firms charge extra when the records come in disorganized or incomplete, $100 to $200 on average, so a shoebox of receipts has a price of its own. Some firms charge for rush work and for filing an extension, and most firms raise their prices every year.

Pennsylvania's small independent preparers reported these average fees for each kind of return in the 2020 survey, next to the national averages.

Kind of return Pennsylvania firms, average fee National average fee
Form 1040 with the standard deduction, state return included $248 $220
Form 1040 itemized, state return included $305 $323
Adding a side business (Schedule C) $152 $192
Adding the self-employment tax form (Schedule SE) $39 $41
Adding a rental (Schedule E) $105 $145
Adding stock or crypto sales $89 $118

Average fees at small independent accounting and tax firms, from the National Society of Accountants' 2020 survey; the Pennsylvania column is that survey's Pennsylvania respondents.

Those are averages, and older ones; most firms raise their fees every year. The 2024 edition of the same survey put an itemized return at $300 to $600 nationally, without saying whether the state return was in that number: a span that starts about where the 2020 average was and runs to nearly double it.

How do chains price a tax return?

At H&R Block a return done with one of its tax pros, in an office or online, starts at $99, with the state return as an additional fee. If you'd rather pay out of your refund than up front, its Refund Transfer adds $42, and getting what's left of the refund by paper check instead of deposit adds $25.

Jackson Hewitt sets office prices through each local owner, so they vary from one office to the next, and its do-it-yourself online filing is $25 for the federal and state returns together.

How do Berks flat-fee shops price a return?

In Berks County, getting your taxes done means three returns, not one. There's the federal return, the Pennsylvania state return, and the local earned income tax return, the local tax on earned income, meaning wages and business profits, which for most of the county goes to the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau in Wyomissing and is due April 15.

The bureau also collects the quarterly payments that people with no tax withheld make during the year; our year-end tax checklist for Berks County covers the January 15 one. The two Berks shops below that post a flat fee cover all three with it. H&R Block's starting price covers the federal return. If you only want help with the federal return, the state return can be filed free on myPATH, the state's own site, and the bureau runs its own online filing for the local return.

Oakes Tax Service, which takes drop-offs in Mohrsville or Sinking Spring and otherwise works through its online portal, handles individual returns only. It posts two prices marked available for the 2026 tax season: $60 flat for students with only standard W-2s, federal, state and local filing included, and returns for people 62 and up that start at $75 and run no more than $125, varying with the investments to report. It isn't adding new self-employed, small-business or rental clients.

Klick Financial Services & Notary, on Kutztown Road in Laureldale, charges one flat all-in price for a personal return, $85 on its tax page (its about page says $75). That covers the federal, state and local filings, e-filing included, with no extra charge for additional forms. Returns for a business cost more, and if you'd like the fee taken out of your refund, that carries a small additional cost.

What does a CPA charge for a simple return?

Most CPA firms bill by the hour, and about four in ten also charge per form. In the latest survey the median billing rate across CPA firms was $170 an hour. Owners bill more, around $275, and associates less, around $127. The way to get a CPA's number is to ask for a quote before any work starts: bring last year's return, say what's changed, and ask whether the first meeting costs anything.

Is there a free option?

Yes, and which one fits depends on your return and your age. The IRS runs volunteer sites, known as VITA, that prepare basic returns free. The IRS doesn't set one income limit for the whole program, sites may set their own, and the income the IRS says the sites generally serve is about $70,244 or less. The IRS's program for people 60 and older, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, is run mostly by AARP Foundation Tax-Aide.

If you'd rather do it yourself, IRS Free File's guided software is free when your adjusted gross income, the income figure on your return after certain adjustments, is $89,000 or less. You reach it only through IRS.gov, and a Free File provider may charge for the state return. The IRS's site locator lists sites from February through April (or call 800-906-9887), and AARP Tax-Aide's service generally runs February 1 to April 15 (or call 888-227-7669).

What to check before you pay a preparer.

Every paid preparer has to have an IRS preparer number (a PTIN), sign your return, put that number on it and give you a copy. The fee should be a set amount, not a share of your refund, and the IRS says to avoid a preparer who wants any of the refund deposited to their own account. This post is general information about what preparation costs and why; a question about your own return goes to a CPA, an enrolled agent (a tax specialist licensed by the IRS), or a free VITA or AARP Tax-Aide site.

So decide now. If your return is a paycheck and the standard deduction, a flat-fee shop tells you its number before you walk in, and the free sites open in February. If there's a business, a rental or stock sales on it, start from the table's first row and add the figure from each row that matches a form on your return, and ask a firm from accountants and tax preparers in Berks County for a quote before January so you've got a number instead of a guess.

Frequently asked questions.

Is a chain cheaper than a local firm?

They price differently, so the same number doesn't mean the same thing. H&R Block's starting price with a tax pro is for the federal return, with the state return priced separately, and Jackson Hewitt's office prices are set by each owner. A Berks flat-fee shop's one price covers the federal, state and local filings together.

Does the price include the state and local returns?

At a flat-fee shop in Berks, yes, the one price covers all three. At H&R Block's tax-pro price the state return is priced separately. The survey averages above counted the state return in the base price and said nothing about the local return.

Can the fee come out of my refund?

Often, for a charge. At H&R Block the Refund Transfer that does this adds $42, and a paper check for what's left of the refund adds $25.

The Berks flat-fee shop that offers it calls it a small additional cost.

When do the free sites open?

The IRS's site locator lists sites from February through April, so check it then or call 800-906-9887. AARP Tax-Aide's service generally runs February 1 to April 15, and its site locator opens for the season, or you can call 888-227-7669. Both handle a basic return, so if yours is one, February is when to book.

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